Judge allows Tech faculty defamation suit to go ahead

Sowder rejects sovereign immunity defense

A local judge ruled this week that a defamation suit filed earlier this year in an intrafaculty dispute at Texas Tech cannot be impeded by the state’s sovereign immunity doctrine.

District Judge William Sowder ruled in favor of Jim Wetherbe, an assistant dean and information systems professor at the Rawls College of Business, in his suit against Debra Laverie, the business college’s senior associate dean and a marketing professor.

Sowder denied Laverie’s motion to dismiss the case, stating that “at a minimum, there are fact issues to be determined that prevent the court from granting the motion.”

Sowder issued his ruling in a letter to the attorneys, offering no further comment.

He also directed lawyers on both sides to prepare draft orders for his signature in the case.

Wetherbe sued Laverie in July, accusing her of spreading rumors that cost him both a slot as a finalist in the search for a replacement dean and approval from the Tech system’s Board of Regents for a prestigious Horn professorship.

Wetherbe’s attorney, Fernando Bustos, also filed an amended complaint with the court this week offering more details about the rumors and how they affected Wetherbe’s status as a finalist for the dean’s job, and his nomination for the Horn accolade.

The suit alleges Laverie told Provost Bob Smith in February of a rumor reputedly circulating among faculty and staff at the business college that an internal candidate for the position was telling people that he had an inside track for the dean’s job. At the time, Wetherbe was the lone internal candidate for the dean’s job.

Smith then sent an email to the college faculty and staff saying the recruiting and interview process was open, and that there was no favored candidate for the job.

At the same time, an item that was already on a draft agenda for the Board of Regents’ March meeting nominating Wetherbe and another faculty member, agricultural economist Thomas Knight, for Horn professorships was withdrawn.

The item was placed on the board’s April agenda and mentioned only Knight’s nomination.

The suit also alleges Laverie told Smith Wetherbe was eavesdropping on faculty conversations with an electronic device in his ear.

The amended suit also lists no specific monetary damages, but also asks for a punitive award, alleging Laverie’s actions had a malicious intent.